NYPD Suppresses Student-led Occupation | City College President Resigns

It’s May 14, 1969. As of May 5, New York City police now occupy City College, ending a two-week student occupation of the school that was intended to negotiate meeting the Five Demands. CCNY President Buell Gallagher, a proponent of keeping police from the school and permitting the occupation to continue during negotiations, has resigned on May 12th, citing pressure from CUNY administrators to handle the situation more punitively. “With the intrusion of politically motivated outside forces in recent days, it has become impossible to carry on the process of reason and persuasion,” he said in a statement first read to a closed faculty senate session and reprinted in The New York Times (and the Bronx Community College newspaper, The Communicator—read the letter here on page 4).

The City College occupation ended with the NYPD arrival after a series of start-and-stop negotiations and a recent arson.